OK..I think this is going to be a long one so I'll just go in the order of day. I started off by contacting my local vet this morning about Josi's increased sensitivity to her tail and the fact that I couldn't get any resolution yesterday from the hospital. He brought up a good point that maybe it was just her anal glands that needed to be released which has been a Josi problem in the past and she was exhibiting some of the same symptoms, but he said he wanted approval from the hospital dr. before doing anything on her. So, I called back up there begging someone to either respond to me or call my vet. A tech called back within 5 minutes and apoligized for not returning my call, which I do not accept but I am over it, and said the dr. wanted to see her back at the hospital today. So off we went. They did extract her anal glands and while they were full, no relief as to the tail. The dr. asked if we could hold tight until the neurologist got out of surgery so he could see Josi again b/c he really thoought this was nerve pain referred to in people as neuropathy. They did an xray of her spine to rule out any tumors pushing on the spine and Brian and I now found ourselves praying that she had and FCE. The results came back negative and they are thinking this "pain" is directly linked to the FCE. They gave us a 2 week prescription for Gabapentin 400mg. 3xday for neurologic pain and said it should take about 48 hours for Josi to have some relief hopefully. Well we gave her the first one at 4:30 and she has finally been peacefully sleeping already with no panic tail bouts. One of the side effects is grogginess and weakness so that probably won't help her walking, but hopefully the shooting pains to her tail will subside after two weeks. So now for the news I can't believe I am going to write. Her bioposy results came back on the tumor in her ruptured spleen as hemangiosarcoma:( As much as I knew the 80% possibility and I didn't think there was a tear left in my eyes, the flood gates erupted and Josi knew something was wrong because she sat herself up on her own and looked right at me with those eyes and said come here mommy everything will be ok, now let me lick away your sadness. The dr. was amazing telling us that while his textbook speech on this cancer would be to tell us maybe 2 months, but his personal experience with his 12yr. old golden with a hemangio ruptured spleen lasted a year and a half. He said unfortunately there is no treatment for this but lots of TLC and treat the FCE as aggressively as we can so she can get back on her feet and enjoy all the things she loves to do for however long she has left. He said the good point is that they did not see any metastization on any of her other noticable organs during exploratory surgery, but he also said with hemangiosarcoma it is not if, but where and when. I don't know how her current mast cell cancer and cardiomyopathy will play into that outlook either, but at this point all our focus is getting her recovered from the FCE to the best of our abilities. We plan to sign her up for water treadmill PT once her staples are removed and she is cleared for activity. On a good note the dr. and neurologist did say that out of all the FCEs they have seen, Josi is by far the strongest recovery so far they have seen and they said she had full reflex motion on examination so they think she is a very good candidate for a full recovery. I know that if that is in the cards, she will fight like she has done with everything else and pull through this set-back with flying colors. I suppose I am going to go search the boards for hemangio posts and try to hold myself together. Although this is obviously not the report we wanted, I do know that we have been very blessed to still have Josi with us with 2 tplos, cardiomyopathy, and stage 2 mast cell cancer all in the past 4 years. She will be 9 in Feb. and I almost feel guilty for being sad b/c I know many of you have had your babies pass much earlier than that. Thank you all for your support and the courage you have given me to get through this past week and I know I will leaning on you all more as the days and weeks go by and of course I will continue to post MANY updates. I have never been a journal writer, but I can't tell you how theraputic it has been for me to get my feelings out. Well I wish I could have posted all good news, but for now we will be concentrating all of our energy on getting her back up on all fours. Oh and just a side note...I had fixed her dinner of kibble, rice, chicken, and pumpkin and I gave it to Brian to feed to her and told him to not let her gobble it all at once and take it away and make her swallow and catch her breath before she inhales the entire bowl. Well when I came downstairs from putting a load of laundry in, Brian says well so much for that idea...I said what are you talking about...and he said when he tried to pull the bowl away from her as she was eating ying down, she got up on all fours all on her own to say hey now give that bowl back, it is mine! While she is a sweetheart, I can't say that she is the best sharer
Yes, do keep those positive thoughts out there. I know it's hard, but I truly believe they help. You have lots of that coming from us here, along with continued healing vibes for your girl. Hugs...hang in there.
